Russia wants to reduce its dependence on Turkish textiles and clothing. The feeling is that the creation of one’s own domestic light industry is cheaper than continuing imports of finished products from abroad. Shadowy imports of textiles into Russia are about one-third of the total supply.

It may be recalled that Turkey shot had down a Russian fighter jet over an airspace violation along its Syrian border in November, a development that has prompted Russia to introduce a number of economic sanctions against Turkey in retaliation. Having officially banned many fruit and vegetable imports from Turkey, the sanctions also included tightened custom checks on textile products.

The Republic of Dagestan is seen as a potential center for the textile and light industry. The republic has a number of advantages over other regions, including the presence of an increasing number of idle hands, the traditional love for working with fabrics etc. Until now, it only lacked investment and political will to realise the idea into practice.

In the meantime Chinese and Indian companies have mobilised all means to replace their Turkish counterparts in Russia. Even Italians have, in recent times, taken some steps to boost their presence in the Russian market.

Turkey’s ready-to-wear textile exports slid 10.3 per cent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2015.